Some parrots seem to delight in cussing - especially when they shouldn't. One courageous bird was even willing to risk death to preserve its right to swear.

However, thanks to a petition filed by the Let Animals Live Foundation, the freedom-fighting Makaw, who had received a death sentence from two rabbis, was granted an injunction from a Tel Aviv District Court, preventing his execution.

The bird's owner, Oren Zarif, a Ramat Gan holistic doctor and Orthodox Jew, had adopted the parrot from a patient whose rabbi had sentenced the subversive bird to death for its "foul mouth."

Zarif soon found himself in the same position as his patient when the parrot began to screech "homo" and "son of a bitch" in Zarif's religious home. Zarif's rabbi also condemned the defiant bird to death - or at least to a removal of its tongue. Meanwhile, Zarif's wife threatened him with divorce if he harmed the bird.

The rebel was finally granted asylum in a zoo, but his brave stand against censorship has encouraged cussing parrots everywhere to have their say.

The first parrot to gain notoriety for swearing may be Charlie, a Makaw rumored to have belonged to Winston Churchill. Charlie is said to have routinely cursed the Third Reich during World War II, saying "f*** Hitler" and "f*** the Nazis" with "an unmistakable Churchillian inflection."

More recently Barney, a notorious swearing Macaw at Warwickshire Wildlife Sanctuary in Nuneaton, was placed in solitary confinement after cussing out two policemen, a mayoress, and a vicar. During a civic ceremony Barney "told the local mayoress to 'f*** off' and then turned to two police officers and a vicar and added: 'You can f*** off too, w******!.'" Undaunted by punishment, Barney continued to shout insults at passers-by through a window in his confinement room.

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